“Yes… yes, I believe he does,” Davies smiled lightly. “Don’t know how much use they’d be, but I believe the gun pod’s fully loaded, and there’s some Sidewinders in the weapons’ bays…” He leaned in toward Trumbull, as if about to reveal some vital piece of classified information. “I’ll let you in on a little secret… if you get close enough, those heat-seekers can lock onto ground targets too! Mightn’t carry a big enough warhead to kill a main battle tank, but it’d probably disable one, and they’d sure as hell take out anything smaller… never know when that might come in handy.” He paused for a moment before continuing. “I think… I’ll go… and have a chat… with Eileen…” Davies stated rather slowly and deliberately, taking care to make sure Trumbull caught every word. “I may be a while…” And with a silent nod, the agreement between them was made. As Davies turned and walked off toward the C-5M, Trumbull called over two of the Lightning’s ground crew.
200km east of Sunderland
Dogger Bank, North Sea
Admiral Gunther Lütjens watched from the bridge of Bismarck as Kriegsmarine Schlachtflotte-1 steamed north at full speed across the Dogger Bank, the rest of the fleet’s capital ships — Tirpitz, Scharnhorst and Gneisenau — stretched away behind in an impressive display of line-ahead formation. Radar-equipped patrol aircraft had been shadowing the Home Fleet for several hours as it travelled down the east coast of the British Isles, its position constantly updated for the benefit of any U-boats in the area, and the enemy’s order of battle was well known to Lütjens by the time the two fleets drew near in the middle of the North Sea. More U-boats were racing to intercept the enemy’s approach following Kohl’s attack in U-1004, and the attack aircraft of TG186, Graf Zeppelin’s carrier air wing, were also being readied for take off armed with bombs and torpedoes.
The carrier’s aircraft had been participating in support of the invasion with raids on Bomber Command coastal airfields in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire, and many of the RAF’s heavy and medium bombers had been destroyed on the ground. The few that survived had been quickly shot out of the skies by massed Luftwaffe fighter sweeps before they’d even come close to the invasion forces. Losses among the aircraft of TG186 had been negligible, and as they now turned north to engage the Royal Navy that afternoon, they were being refuelled and rearmed in preparation for battle with the Home Fleet.
Graf Zeppelin was the lead ship of the largest class of warship in the world. With a full-load rating of more than 73,000 tonnes, she and her sister ships were fleet aircraft carriers built up from the hulls of the huge Bismarck-class ‘superbattleships’. The term überschlactshiffe (‘superbattleship’) had been coined by Reichsmarschall Reuters himself in reference to that new class of ships, their dimensions and tonnage so much greater than that of a ‘normal’ battleship that the conventional title hadn’t been considered sufficient to do them justice.
Bismarck’s hull design was also quite suitable as the basis for a matching class of fleet carrier, of which Graf Zeppelin was the first. She was more than 260 metres long, almost 40 metres across her beam, and a long, ‘island’ superstructure rose amidships on her starboard side above her broad, steel flight deck. Her large, single funnel rose from the rear of that island, and at each end of the superstructure, a pair of superimposed triple turrets mounting three 128mm guns apiece, providing her with heavy flak and some close-in defence against lighter enemy vessels, should one manage to draw within range. Those heavy turrets were complimented by forty light emplacements spread around the edges of that long flight deck, the smaller mountings boasting equal numbers of twin 37mm or ‘quadruple 23mm flakvierling’ flak guns fitted into turrets almost identical to those of the Wirbelwind self-propelled AA vehicle.
Trägergeschwader 186 called Graf Zeppelin its home, the mixed air wing comprised of one gruppe of fifty J-4B naval fighter-bombers and one of S-2C Seelöwe attack aircraft. Each gruppe consisted of two staff aircraft and four staffeln of twelve, and the carrier also kept within its huge, 170m-long hangar bay five anti-submarine/reconnaissance helicopters. That air wing was now preparing to launch in response to the approach of the Home Fleet as Graf Zeppelin turned into the wind to begin flight operations with her trio of escorting destroyers, thirty kilometres astern of the rest of the fleet.
Schlachtflotte-1 powered north at best possible speed, eager to engage the British warships. Lütjens had released the First Cruiser Division, and the smaller warships, commanded by Kapitän zur See Hans Langsdorff in Admiral Graf Spee, had driven ahead upon sighting a corresponding British cruiser force to the north of the Dogger Bank. The two groups were now just twelve thousand metres and had commenced the firing of ranging shots. The powerful optics of the warships’ fire directors and those of the lookouts atop the main masts could make out the closing cruiser forces beneath the grey skies, although visibility was too poor to make out any real detail. The smoke on the horizon and the images on their radar screens however were clear indications that a larger fleet was definitely drawing near.
A pair of helicopters from Bismarck and Tirpitz were already circling the action, remaining well out of range of enemy AA guns as the spotters on board provided an excellent, first-hand account of the developing engagement to both Lütjens and Langsdorff. On paper, the presence of heavy cruisers Kent, Exeter and York and the light cruisers Ajax, Galatea and Achilles were for the most part an even match for the Kriegsmarine ‘heavies’ Blücher and Prinz Eugen, and their lighter support from München, Essen and Vienna, however the German warships had two major factors in their favour.
The first was radar gunnery. Radar was still a new and temperamental invention for the British that hadn’t yet been fitted to all of her smaller warships. None of the Royal Navy’s cruisers that day had were equipped with it (some of The RN’s older battleships hadn’t received radar either), while all of the Kriegsmarine’s warships from light cruiser and above were fitted with search and ranging radars, and the ability to accurately determine distance, bearing and speed of their enemy would prove vital almost from the start.
The other important factor was Admiral Graf Spee. Classed as a panzerschiffe, or ‘armoured ship’, by the Germans, she and the others in her class were known in allied circles by the somewhat diminutive title of ‘pocket battleship’. Her armour and guns however were nothing to be mocked in comparison to the heavy cruisers she was now facing up against at the head of her line. Twelve thousand tonnes’ displacement at standard load, she was 186m long and almost 22m across her beam, and could steam at almost 29 knots with the aid of her powerful MAN diesels. She was also quite heavily armoured for her size, and carried two triple turrets that mounted a total of six hard-hitting, accurate 11-inch guns.
Even as the leading British ships were firing their first ranging shots, accurate fire from Graf Spee, Blücher and Prinz Eugen was already falling about them, with 150mm shells from the three German ‘City’ class light cruisers close behind. With plenty of warning of the British approach on radar and by aerial reconnaissance, the Kriegsmarine ships had been able to place themselves directly across their opponents’ line of approach, crossing their ‘T’ and enabling all six German vessels to concentrate broadside fire on the leading enemy ships, while only the British warships’ forward guns could respond. Within fifteen minutes, the intense bombardment left Kent, Exeter and York severely damaged and burning furiously, with Exeter and York seemingly out of control. The former wandered out of the battle line to the east at low speed with all guns silent, while York circled aimlessly, chasing her own tail with her steering gear out of action.